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Walter Pichler, the far sighted visionary architect, died last week at his home in Burgenland, Austria at the wage of 76. Though he does not seem to have an English Wikipedia page devoted to his work, Pichler was unquestionably one of the most influential artist/architects working in post-war Europe. Like Austrians Hans Hollien, Raimund Abraham, the groups Haus Rucker and Coop Himmelb(l)au, he created a powerful and evocative utopian world out of a hybrid of sculpture and drawing but always with an architectural idea at the core of the work.

Walter Pichler, "TV Helmet/Portable Living Room," 1967.

Walter Pichler.

Many of his works were sited in an around his Bergenland home and he rarely left the estate to exhibit or appear at discussions of his work. But in 1967, Mr. Pichler was included in a show at MoMA called Visionary Architecture, along with Hans Hollein and Raimund Abraham. He represented Austria at the Venice Biennale in 1982 and appeared in the fourth Documenta, in 1968. Lebbeus Woods will be writing an extended obituary in the next print edition of AN.